Category: Librarians

“…did you know that in just one hour mobile users will have carried out 68 million searches on Google, generated $3 million worth of ad revenue from Google ads, and made 8 million purchases through their devices with Paypal? In the same time mobile users open 2 billion emails, send 1 billion WhatsApp messages and 768 million text messages, while 29 million will have accessed Facebook .” (Dealsunny.com 2016).

The use of smart phones and other mobile technology for seeking information is growing. To illustrate, take a look at thisreal time graphic on mobile usage statistics shared on Stephen’s Lighthouse blog, from Dealsunny.com. 😮 It will blow your mind.

“Nearly two-thirds of Americans are now smartphone owners, and for many these devices are a key entry point to the online world.”

“More than half of smartphone owners have used their phone to get health information, do online banking.” (Pewinternet.org 2015)

As librarians we need to be on top of our game as far as mobile apps are concerned. We should not only be seen to be using them, but we should be able to confidently teach people how to use the popular ones. It is therefore important for us to remain abreast as best we can. Articles such as this one I saw shared on Facebook a few days ago – Librarian Approved: 30 Ed-Tech Apps to Inspire Creativity and Creation – are a huge help.

After reading Rudaí23 Thing 22, by Wayne Gibbons, I was interested in finding out about the Gum app, since I had not heard of it before. It was quick to locate on the App Store, simple to activate, and really user-friendly. I scanned the barcode of one of my favourite textbooks, and left my first comment, or ‘gum‘.

Looking at their website, they’ve used a clever marketing strategy…alliteration… “conversations on comics”, “poems on products” and “notes on novels”. 😀 That says it all. The potential for library users’ to converse about books internationally, right there on Gum, is huge. This article from a blog ‘The Library Voice’, shows how it was used successfully within a library situation. (Thanks to the author of Thing 22 for sharing this link.)

Gum is a super user-friendly, free app. There is no need to first enter an email address and create a password or user account. It loads, requests access to the phone camera, and you get scanning. To leave a ‘gum’ the app asks to create a user name. Once you create your comment, you ‘stick’ your ‘gum’, and it appears on your ‘wall’. Gums can be managed, edited, deleted, and products unfollowed. Apparently new gums on the same products create an ‘alarm’ that rings on your phone.

If we were to promote this app by means of posters in the library, or even face-to-face, it could really take off within a library community or reading club. The apps for Goodreads and LibraryThing etc., are fantastic, but a user account is required. Also, Gum is not restricted to books only, so we can get info on popular household products, food items, PC games, tech tools and more. There is a 12+ age restriction to the app, because, besides the user T & Cs, there is little control of who posts what. So teachers beware. However, there is a reporting tool, that, when activated, opens a ready-to-send email, guiding you on specific info sought regarding the product or comment.

Another app that I personally enjoy is Adobe Spark Video. It is one of the trio belonging to Adobe Spark – Spark Post, Spark Page and Spark Video. Admittedly, it is only available on Apple products, (sorry Android users …) but oh my!…it has never been easier to quickly create interesting presentations, lesson aides, info slides, portfolios and more. *shows thumbs up* 😀

What better way to use that old iPad or tablet, lying around in the library…set it up as an info display. iPads are increasingly used in classrooms worldwide; teacher librarians can utilise this app to create interesting lesson segments. Public librarians can have presentations which they all share to guide or instruct on certain topics upon request from users. Voice-overs are easy to record, as long as you know what you want to say. I created this presentation on Information Literacy for a MOOC that I was doing a while ago. It is far from perfect, but was fun to make. The target audience was a year 11/12 group of school children; please, academics, be forgiving as you keep that in mind. 🙂

When you’ve tried Adobe Spark Video, do let me know how you feel about it via the comment box below. Most of all, have fun. 🙂

I am super excited to know that I’m on Thing 23 of 23 Things next week. Woohoo!! Really looking forward to ‘Making it all work together‘. Until then, thanks for stopping by. 🙂

Well, that was fun! 😀 I have always loved looking at the wonderful infographics one can find on Pinterest and elsewhere, but have never sat down to explore methods of making one. Thank you Rudai23 Thing 21, for requiring me to do just that.

I was at a loss to know what topic to cover, not having time to research one. As I was reading an online newspaper a few days ago, my eye fell on an article The Nobel Prizes in numbers. Interesting facts that few of us know or recall.

I signed up to a free account on easel.ly. I found it user-friendly, especially if you are acquainted with desktop publishing. The graphics available on the free account are limited, so I used images from Clipartpanda.com. I needed a little extra info which I found on Wikipedia. I have cited my sources on the infographic itself.

Admittedly, it would take some practice to make a really good infographic that is eye-catching and informative. That said, I’m quite happy with my first effort. I used as much as I could from the article, without cluttering the image to death.

On second thoughts, it is a bit cluttered, but hopefully easy to read. When I signed up to easel.ly I was mailed a link which I thought I would share on this blog: A complete guide to Infographics. There are some great tips which I would have to incorporate the next time.

These, from the writer of Thing 21, Michelle Breen, are just as important to remember:

Create an attention grabbing headline for your infographic;

Know your audience and tailor the content like you would do in a presentation;

Cite the sources of the data used in the infographic and check your facts;

Keep it fun by using distinctive colours and illustrations.

Talking about gorgeous infographics…look at this: The Benefits of Handwriting vs Typing, via Stephen’s Lighthouse. Oh my! I love it. And then of course, there are the wonderful infographics that are made by the talented Sylvia Duckworth…they must adorn many a classroom in schools worldwide. I also stumbled upon this article claiming to present The 100 Best Infographics. It targets North America, but has some amazing examples, with only a couple that I recognise.

Because of the visual learning experience I would imagine that, depending upon the space available within a library, it would be great to have infographics up on display, covering many different topics, throughout the year. They are adaptable to young and old, informative and decorative. A really valuable form of information presentation.

Until next time, when we discuss ‘mobile things’. 😀 Thanks again for stopping by.

Copyright, creative commons and all things legal have been well presented by Caroline Rowan in her write-up of Rudai23 Thing 19. It’s a topic that we should all be familiar with, but as librarians even more so, to ensure we offer proper guidance and advice to library users. I’m always appreciative of people who have the ability to explain it so clearly.

Recently (April/May 2016), I completed a 4-week course offered by ALIA and Sydney TAFE on Copyright. Here is my reflection of the course, after completing it:

This course was invaluable to me as a new librarian, especially since much of the focus was on Australian copyright. Locating different links and exploring the website for the Copyright Council for Australia was beneficial, most especially access to the Information Fact Sheets for each area of copyright.

It was interesting to learn about copyright period, and how it is applied worldwide. I learned about take-down requests and the issues that surround them, and enjoyed seeing examples of copyright policies from different libraries. The most valuable part of the course for me was learning about Creative Commons; at last I was able to take time to study the different licences and how they are used and cited.

Finally, Digital Rights Management (DRM) was presented and we were able to see the controversies surrounding this issue. We were shown all sides of the argument. It was really enlightening for me, as a new librarian, having not yet had opportunity to work with these issues. We learned about ‘click-wrap‘ and ‘shrink-wrap’ – “non-negotiable terms that accompany the [boxed] product” (CSO 2011) – pertaining to software and licences, and how libraries are affected by these.

While on the course we were given the link to this super video explaining Creative Commons from Creative Commons Kiwi…

Having once again gone through the issues pertaining to copyright, I have decided to place a prominent notice on the upper right hand side of my blog, showing that content created by me is covered under the creative commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Here is a link explaining how to protect your blog with a CC notice. I’m relieved that I finally got round to doing this. 🙂

Since the start of this blog I have used only Creative Commons or Copyright free (public domain) images, and have endeavoured to credit them correctly. If you see a discrepancy on my site, please be sure to tell me.

There’s this cool app for kids, Quiver, that brings their colouring activities to life. The child in me is thrilled by this; I can’t get enough. Augmented Reality (i.e. additional to reality) has enabled these images to jump off the page and become playmates and 3D learning experiences.

Here is the volcano activity sheet that I tested on my iPad…first the volcano appears…

and then you can make it erupt…..

…sound effects, lava, smoke and all!

Fascinating! 😀

Oh, I know, right now you’re thinking about those little critters that are being hunted all over the world. PokémonGo! The craze that took the world by storm just a few weeks ago. In my wildest dreams I would not have thought that I too would have engaged in such unseemly behaviour (said tongue-in-cheek), holding the phone level with my nose and being led randomly in different directions, to trace that little yellow monster that was supposed to be hiding in our library! It reminds me of a recent cartoon I saw, created by the satirical artist Pawel Kuczynski, and highlighted by Twisted Sifter… 😉

Pikachu riding human, by Pawel Kuczynski

It was only the 2nd week of the craze, and there we were, the head of the library and I, probably looking really odd, walking to and fro between the stacks, right up to displays, windows and notice boards, but the elusive creature stayed out of reach! Grrr. So, off we went from the library into the museum, determined to experience the hunt – drawing strange looks – pursuing the unseen. Just as we came to our senses (we were supposed to be manning the library desk) and decided to end our quest, behold…there it was…dancing cheekily in front of us. The excitement at skilfully making it go *poof* was quite satisfying after the effort spent! (No success, yet, on the library’s own little monster. Either he’s not there, or the App is not playing along nicely.)

Augmented Reality (AR) is providing folk with a new pastime in PokémonGo. Some say it’s great, as people are out and about, and moving; others decry it as a waste of valuable time. Whatever the opinion, AR has hit a new high. Libraries are using the hype to entice people into the virtual gyms and recharging stations. Library displays have been organised around the new phenomenon. In her blog “Linking Learning” Kay Oddone writes that PokémonGo has brought Augmented Reality to the mainstream. (There’s also a link to a YouTube video explanation on AR.)

Where else is AR useful, besides colouring in books coming to life and monsters popping up in odd places? I discovered this video produced a couple of years before PokémonGo – the five best AR apps. Interesting, to say the least. 🙂

Rudai23’s Thing 14 has some links to interesting sites regarding AR in libraries. I like the idea of LibrARi, as we librarians know there are many who battle with classification systems and call numbers, or how to locate a book on the shelf. Data input would have to be really accurate though, and regularly updated, so that users aren’t further confused if the app points to the wrong book-address.

In the museum’s library we may try to do something with Aurasma for advocacy purposes. Thing 15’s topic is library advocacy, so I may get to try it out for the next post. At the moment we could use the Quiver app to make colouring in fun for the kids who are coming in and spending an hour during the hot summer months.

Nothing, however, beats human contact, and so the UX Librarian’s position could merely be augmented by this technology. 😉 I wonder if there already is something similar, besides the virtual reality tours and 3D images on apps that one encounters in some museums and galleries and via websites?

Conference attendees stand out on Social Media. They are enthused, excited and say they leave with fresh focus. Recharged. They document their experiences and the effect is contagious, even over the ether-net. Exposure to experts in the field, new technologies and ideas, modern approaches, along with having made new professional contacts, all go towards making conference attendance worthwhile. If I feel the way I do, after a short workshop, I can only imagine how amazing it is to be present at such an event.

Librarians’ batteries potentially run dry pretty fast. I guess dealing with public/academia/ stakeholders and so on and so forth has that odd side-effect. A regular RECHARGE! is needed.

“With a focus on professional development which keeps my job knowledge and skills current, this learning and development proposal aligns with our organisation’s commitment to its employees and customers by maintaining standards of practice and through continuous improvement of skills, attributes and knowledge.”

There in a nutshell, the reason for conference attendance.

And then, once the day’s proceedings are over…librarians have the ability to live it up! 😉

Jokes aside…as a new professional, attending a conference is high on my ‘wish-list’. Just recently it seemed this may well be possible since IFLA had Qatar short-listed for an international conference in 2018. Libraries across Qatar were given a short period to prepare for a visit from IFLA delegates to review this possibility. Excitement and expectation was high, as we began to see ourselves attending this locally hosted event. In the end, this is not to be; when it came down to the wire, another nation was selected.

So, as a member of ALIA, my attention is naturally drawn to Australia and the ALIA Information Online 2017 Conference. I would love to attend this event, and have begun to plan. The cost is immense because I live abroad. As an unemployed librarian, I’d have to carry the cost. I could pair it with our annual visit to my daughter and family in Brisbane; this would be killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, and make the expense that much more valuable.

The conference takes place in Sydney, from 13 – 17 February. Key speakers will include Rolf Hapel, director of Citizens’ Services and Libraries in Aarhus, Denmark; James Neal,University Librarian Emeritus, Columbia University, Vice President/ President elect, ALA; Patricia McMillan, author of “Make it matter: the surprising secret for leading digital transformation”; Sebastian Chan, Chief Experience Officer (CXO), Australian centre for the moving image; and Paula Bray, DX Lab Leader, State Library of New South Wales.

Here is my planning for this event:

Tourist visa: AU$135

Return air ticket to Sydney: AU$1,942.00

Conference fee (early bird member’s registration): AU$1,190

Accommodation: AU$335.00 p/n x 6 nights

Other: AU$20 per day x 5 days (Non-tangoing teetotaler 😉 )

TOTAL: AU$5377.00

😮 No small budget! In our currency that amounts to QR14,894. I would seriously need a sponsor if I wanted this to become a reality. I am grateful for a husband who is really supportive, and who has contributed much to my career path in the last few years. He would gladly provide the air ticket and visa costs. However, to cover the balance, I’d have to hope for a sponsor who is willing to assist a new professional. 🙂 Alternatively, engaging in some form of home industry to raise the funds would be the only option. (For those who wonder why I am unemployed… in Qatar an MLIS is the basic requirement, along with 2 to 5 years’ experience in the sector. I do not meet either criteria. Along with that, if one is over 55, you don’t easily find employment. Sadly, my career has not been able to progress, despite reaching a short-list twice in the last year.)

And then…that wonderful international conference from IFLA. Here is the link to the 2016 event, about to take place in Columbus, Ohio. Librarians, watch out for the tweets, using the #WLIC2016, this is going to be a great event to follow. Claire Sewell is one of many who will be live on Twitter and Instagram, and also blogging from this event. Be sure to follow her posts. I, for one, can’t wait. You could also follow the IFLA2016 Twitter account. The 2017 event is only a year away…so get planning.

The idea of broadcasting live is probably intimidating to most. Then there are those special types, who are confident and know just how, what and when …and then you get those who throw caution to the wind and decide … what the heck…I’m going to give this a bash. Yesterday I fell into the latter category, I’m afraid, to meet my commitment to Rudai23, Thing 10.

At first I was only going to watch a live event and write about it. But then I decided first-hand experience is probably best. Since it is summer in Doha and many are on long leave, there’s not much happening in the library world to live broadcast. So I decided to record a tour of the Museum of Islamic Art’s library, where I volunteer. It was an experience I shan’t forget.

I chose Twitter’s Periscope app because I felt that having the video disappear after 24 hours is probably not a bad idea…for me. 😀 But I understand how some people, wanting a longer effect from their effort, would rather go for Facebook Live, where the video is then placed on the person’s (or page’s) timeline. I had thought of what to say beforehand, so that I could concentrate on my camera skills, to ensure I don’t make the potential viewers quite dizzy in the head. When it came to being ready to press the ‘go live’ button…I found to my horror that it had already gone live a few seconds ago. I must have inadvertently pressed the button while trying to type the video’s title in the strong wind, because I was outdoors for a courtyard-view of the city. That totally threw me, and I lost the thread of my ‘script’…I did the tour, ended it, only to view it and find that I had, after all, made everyone dizzy.

{I knew I’d get to use that little guy somewhere this week… 🙂 }

Given the option to delete, I never thought twice and got rid of the offending piece; I decided it was a practice run… let’s do the real thing. *laughs out loud* The 2nd time was slightly better, but the near 40 degrees / 80% humidity outside made me thoroughly hot and bothered (not a good move, but wanted to show the awesome view), while the stress of the actual task made me breathless. :p While recording, concentrating on filming and using the right words simultaneously helped me to forget that this was ‘live’. Only once it came to the end and I had to wrap up, did I again get that “OMG! This is live” sensation, and although I’d practised an opening and a closing, the words escaped me and, well, yes…you get what you get. LOL.

One it was posted ‘out there’, I noticed that there were live viewers and even a few comments. 😀

It was quite thrilling in the end, and I can imagine that if it is a skill one could hone, it could really be fun to use in a library situation, to engage more with the community.

It’s a great way of reaching out to users to promote a special service or event happening in the library. Different librarians could share the task of promoting the same event to make it even more interesting. The library’s Instagram or Twitter account could advertise the live broadcast beforehand. Also, it must be useful to be able to share live events with folk who cannot attend. The importance would then be to alert everyone of the intention to broadcast, beforehand, so that they can make plans to fit the viewing into their schedule. It is obvious why marketers would use this method of reaching potential customers. I’ve since discovered that the Periscope subscriber can decide to choose (in the settings) whether to delete in 24 hours or not, so that is an option.

An article comparing Periscope, Facebook live and YouTube Mobile Live was helpful with planning. Facebook live was in the news a lot just recently with a tragic incident in the USA being broadcast live. There has been a lot of debate on the pros and cons following that incident. Mediashift investigates its uses, and touches on some of the controversy in its article Facebook Live Grew Up Quickly. Here’s How Broadcasters Are Jumping In.Facebook also recently increased the time period of live streaming to four hours. This article explains.

I’d love to know your thoughts on live broadcasting. 🙂 As always, thanks for stopping by.

Thing 8 requires us to work through one or more of a few popular web curation tools. Librarians are natural curators. We love to organise things. In the image above, the kiddies corner of the museum library hosts this ‘book review tree’, where the children’s book reviews are placed on display. It’s easy to curate tangible things. We do it all the time. Socks in their own drawer, books on a shelf, bank documents in a folder, garden tools in a shed, table cutlery all in one place.

So what do we do with the info we gather from the internet? How do we store the interesting articles, funny cat videos, beautiful images, the jokes, the stories that we encounter as we surf, read or research on the web? Enter web curation tools.

A few years ago I subscribed to Scoop.it, but consistently forgot to “scoop”. :p (I recently deactivated that account, since I just don’t get to it at all.) A while later I enrolled on a webinar titled ‘Using Pinterest to be a better teacher‘ presented by Shannon Holden, via Newteacherhelp.com. Having heard of Pinterest and how its users were waxing lyrical about what they found there, I was inquisitive when I saw that it could be called a teaching tool. I subscribed, watched the webinar and was sold on the idea. Pinning, re-pinning and searching for content, friends or like-minded professionals is easy; content display is visually attractive and wow, do you get ideas from Pinterest!

An image of my Pinterest profile page on iPad. With only 311 pins, I am in no way a serious pinner. I have seen some accounts that run into the thousands of pins. 😀

I recall going into the school library one day, where I was an intern. The librarian had called in sick and had left no instructions. It was the first day of the week, and the display boards needed a theme…my first thought was “to Pinterest!”. Sure enough, after searching ‘middle school library displays’, I was presented with a host of ideas and found one that the library assistant and I could put together in the 30 minutes before the first library lesson.

Here is an image of that display idea via Pinterest. (c) S Brandt

Of course, unless you don’t mind it, the downside with these sites is the amount of time (that elusive commodity once again) that one can potentially spend in browsing through curated content. On Pinterest I can simply know that for the next hour I’ll be out of this current zone and visiting in the cyber world. Actually, for this desert-expat it’s really fun to visit other travel hotspots, gardens, homes, kitchens, bookshops, closets, fashion stores, art galleries…the list is endless.

It is a reality that web-links become broken (that is, the web pages are deleted or moved). So, although one curates, some links won’t be there when you re-visit them. That said, the value one gets out of curating and sharing with others is truly rewarding.

Another one of my favorite curation tools is Storify. A Twitterchat, for example, that has been ‘storified’ is great, because while the chat is on there is little time to read each tweet or to visit links that others might share. The Storify makes it so much more enjoyable and it’s also accessible later on. In thing 8’s write up, the author Christine Jordan, gives a useful step-by-step explanation on how to Storify. Do take a look.

Having signed up for a free Storify account, I went ahead and used it to curate some of my own tweets pertaining to my volunteering effort at the museum library. I keep a daily record on Twitter of what I do at the museum, using the hashtag #MIALibrary. Here is my Storify…(click on the link below the image to access the Storify).

news…curate for librarians’ current awareness, to keep them up to date with new tech, new databases, professional advice, new games, etc.

And finally, libraries need to market their services, their resources, their hub. Without knowledge of their community and their environment they could not offer a valid service. Web content curation can help to keep the library’s stakeholders and decision makers informed of what is happening and why it’s vital to meet their users’ needs. This article from Social Media Today, provides tips to content curation for marketing purposes.

This link provides ideas for more curation tools. Let me know (below) which is your favourite.

Till ‘Thing 9’ and the topic of video recording technology. Thanks again for stopping by.